MMA Training Portland: Training For My First Fight…

Hey guys.

So I wanted to write a quick blog about MMA training Portland life and my big story over the last 4-5 months. Mata Leao Combat Sports has allowed me to evolve my life and my game so much over the last year but everything REALLY kicked it up a notch when I started training for my first cage fight. I got into the best shape I have ever been in ever. But more on the details in a sec. I gotta rewind and kinda summarize a few key details.

Ya boy took this selfie ^^^^^

MMA TRAINING PORTLAND

I’m an East Coaster and always had a little scrap to me but I didn’t really know how to fight until I came to Mata Leao Combat Sports about 2 years ago. I trained in Kung Fu under a really awesome teacher for about 4 years or so and although it definitely was really tough training mentally and physically and ALSO had some cool stuff.. there were definitely big holes in my game. I had been in street-fights before and won some before for sure, but that’s also whatever and not really important. I really had a wake up call when I blazed up in my basement and my friend came over who knew jiu jitsu. I got choked out and will never forget the lesson that it taught me! From then on, I knew that I needed to learn the art of Jiu Jitsu. That’s when I called Omar at Mata Leao and the rest is History.

MMA TRAINING PORTLAND

What was it like training and how did I train? HMMM. PRETTY MUCH THE DOPEST THING I EVER DID AND IT WAS AWESOME. There was a lot of Muay Thai Classes. There was a lot of extra-curricular sparring. And I do mean extra-curricular because I am currently in finals for Biology 3, Chemistry 3 and Anatomy 2. So basically this whole time I am under a huge academic workload and still training 20 hours a week and also doing this blog. But I would box, kickbox, do take down defense drills, jump rope, endurance training, bag work… all of it.  And it pushed me farther then I ever thought I could take it.

At one point I went through this phase where I was taking 20 minute cold showers and spending a lot of time in icy cold rivers and running a lot. Omar was like ” fuck your cardio. You need to do more technical sparring and come to class instead of running and getting cold.”

When a Door Closes…

So basically the story goes that I trained my ass off for four months and was on a fight card. I emailed everyone in my contact list, my mom and dad booked a hotel in Portland and all my friends back home were going to stream the fight on the internet for 20 dollars. The guy that I was fighting was 6’4″ inch tall, 21 year old lumberjack from Yoncalla, OR that thought that it was cool to write the ‘N’ word on his hard hat and post it to facebook. YEAH I’M SERIOUS GUYS. So basically I was ultra stoked to teach him a lesson.

EPIC LETDOWN

Literally the day before the OSAC deadline(3 days before)  he dropped out of the fight ‘for personal reasons’ and I was left with nothing. I was very disappointed, but this is the name of the game apparently.

My Coach Omar Santiago was very supportive and automatically had a backup plan. He told me that I needed to go to the Subleague Qualifier 2 and register. I was dubious, I had already won gold at the other one and I wanted to work my Muay Thai Skills in the CAGE…. but it ended up working out so much better.

I submitted all 5 opponents at the second subleague qualifier and got gold. This was a great experience because my mom and dad BOTH got to come, ( my mom wouldn’t have actually attended my cage fight she’s squeamish!)

Basically training for the fight made me a better man. Even though it tanked out and the fighter dropped out, it was a great experience and I still got to compete. Mata Leao Combat Sports is the best gym filled with the best people I have ever met. They were so supportive and really invested a lot of effort into helping me train and I would not be successful at all without my coaches and teammates. Thanks to all of them.

Interested in MMA Training Portland? Get click here to get dat free 30 day trial… trust me, it’s gonna be lit.

Aaron Harvey